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Tune System Restore Feature in Windows Vista

There are mainly two important tweaks you can make to System Restore feature in Windows Vista: changing the size of the System Restore repository, and changing the System Restore schedule. The first tweak, changing the size of the System Restore repository in Vista affects how much disk space is set aside on any given disk for System Restore feature. The second tweak,changing the System Restore schedule in Vista affects how often System Restore feature runs in the background.

System Restore in Windows Vista has been designed to run as efficiently as it’s maximum. Still, on low end computer systems that don’t have as much spare data storage capacity like notebooks, or some computers that only have one hard drive having small size , things can slow down when System Restore feature kicks in. It is better in such a case is to set System Restore feature in Windows Vista to run a little less often or, on a non-critical computer system, disabling it entirely.

To change the amount of hard disk drive space set aside for System Restore feature in Windows Vista, you’ll need to edit that disk volume’s Shadow Copy storage space, which is where System Restore information is kept.For this task launch an elevated command prompt(run command prompt in administrative privileges) in Windows Vista and type in the following code:

vssadmin resize shadowstorage /for=[drive] /maxsize=[size]

where [drive] is the drive letter of the corresponding disk partition, that you’re changing the size of the Shadow Copy storage space for (typically C: drive for most of the systems), and [size] is the size of the hard drive disk space to allocate (e.g., 20 GB). The default Shadow Copy allocation for any given disk volume is 15% of that volume’s free space, but with this technique it can be ramped up or down to a precise amount if needed.For computers with small capacity hard disk’s this tweak is very useful to save disk space.

To change the System Restore schedule in Windows Vista, open the Task Scheduler and navigate to the left hand pane to Task Scheduler-> Library-> Microsoft-> Windows-> SystemRestore. In the top of the center pane you’ll see the scheduled task for System Restore feature in Windows Vista; double-click on the Scheduled task and select the Triggers tab. By default, System Restore in Windows Vista is triggered on two occasions: first, 30 minutes after the system is booted, and second, at midnight every day. In both cases, by default,System Restore schedule will run as soon as possible if a scheduled instance is missed. You can edit or disable either one of these triggers by double-clicking on them and changing the option to disable.

Note that if you make changes to System Restore settings (through the System Protection tab in System Properties -> Advanced) in Windows Vista, these scheduling options may be undone. Also, don’t delete the SystemRestore task; you can just disable all the triggers if you don’t want to run it for whatever reason. If you delete the task by mistake, you’ll need to disable and re-enable System Restore from the Windows Vista Control Panel -> System -> System Protection menu. This will recreate the deleted task back with its default scheduling.